Good news rarely dominates headlines but here are 15 extraordinary people who stood out in 2015 for inspiring or touching hundreds of lives.

Good news rarely dominates headlines but here are 15 extraordinary people who stood out in 2015 for inspiring or touching hundreds of lives.

Good news rarely dominates headlines but here are 15 extraordinary people who stood out in 2015 for making a change, inspiring or touching hundreds of lives.

1st transgender principal

In June, Manabi Bandopadhyay took charge as principal of Krishnagar Women's College in We Bengal -the first transgender to head a higher educational institution.

"I've reached here on the strength of my ability to pass the interview by the college service commission. The appointment has nothing to do with me being a man, woman or from the third sex," said the 50-year-old, who was born Somnath and underwent sex re-assignment surgery in her early 30s. Her father discouraged her from revealing her identity and she's fought abuse and discrimination all the way to earning a PhD and a lecturer's position. "The world wanted me to be in a circus but I have defied them all," she said in an interview.

Striking women

They called their group Pembillai Orumai, simply, women's unity, and these ordinary women banded together to revolt against low salaries and abysmal working conditions in tea plantations of Munnar in Kerala in September.They weren't traditional trade unionists, just women who realized their voices were not heard in established unions run, of course, by men. Six thousand women joined the protest, spilling into the quiet tourist town, where they were no more than figures on picture postcards till then.The protest drew so much noise that male trade unionists made an attempt to join but were shooed away. After nine days, plantation companies gave in to the demands. The movement encouraged women in other small enterprises across Kerala to band together.

Accidental rapper

You could rant endlessly against industrial pollution and few, except green campaigners, would sit up to listen. But Sofia Ashraf, a young Chennai rapper, managed to grab the attention of 8,78,705 people with her music video, Kodaikanal Won't, on the alleged mercury poisoning caused by Hindustan Unilever's thermometer factory in the hill station in Tamil Nadu. The rap song was set to Nicki Minaj's Anaconda -and got a `wow' from the American musician for the punch it packed. The interest generated by the video pushed Unilever to issue a statement promising action.

Ashraf had been roped in by three NGOs who had been fighting the mercury contamination for years to stir up a public debate on the subject. It worked, and how!

Online shrink

Depression was in the news this year -Deepika Padukone's revelations and a WHO study pegging prevalence in India at 36%. IIT Guwahati alumnus Richa Singh had been deeply affected by the suicide of a de pressed classmate in college in 2008. After working for six years, she quit to start YourDost, to provide anonymous online counselling and psychological support for people with emotional problems, along with a former colleague. In just about a year, they've helped 70,000 people and have Rs 2.6 crore in seed funding.

Reel to real hero

Bathrooms submerged. Water coming out of the drains. I am an affluent actor. This is my house.

Imagine rest of TN," tweeted actor Siddharth during the Chennai floods. And that realization spurred him and RJ Balaji to start rescuing people as well as ferrying food, water and other relief materials to the affected. More actors lent their cars and resources to his team. Though he kept saying he wasn't the face of the relief work, it was Siddharth's regular social media updates that drew the attention of the rest of the online community and the world.Hundreds of online volunteers coordinated rescues, directed volunteers on the ground, raised funds and much-needed food and water and helped distribute relief material in Chennai and Cuddalore.

'Iron Man' at fifty

The lithe, athletic model-actor Milind Soman completed the Ironman Triathlon on July 19 and turned 50 on November 4. His fit-at-50 achievement won him much appreciation that none of his acting gigs ever managed to get. Soman's victory was reflective of a larger trend of 50-somethings getting on the fitness wagon. If you still have doubts, look at the Khan trio -Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir.All turned 50 this year.The Ironman triathlon includes a 3.8km swim, 180.2km cycle ride and 42.2 km run and is considered one of the toughest races in the world, testing physical and mental endurance.

Net neutrality activists

Free-internet activists had their jobs cut out this year fighting corporations and government agencies threatening to undermine the very principles on which the internet was built: that users should be able to access all content regardless of the source, and without particular content being favoured or blocked. While attempts at zero-rating were shot down, the battleground has now shifted to Facebook, which is making ever more vigorous attempts to mobilise public opinion in favour of its `Free Basics' programme, through which users will be able to access certain websites without an internet connection. Activists say this is an attempt to monopolise the Indian internet couched as charity , while Facebook argues that free rating is not against net neutrality . "With Free Basics, we are letting developers offer zero-rated services. This is powerful.We are not being a filter of any content going through that," Zuckerberg has announced.

Speaking out

Long before the flood of award wapsis began, she raised her voice against the "vanishing space" for diversity. In October, Nayantara Sahgal re turned her Sahitya Akademi award to protest the killing of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi and the lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri. Not many millim man in Dadri. Not many m lennials are likely to have heard of her but the move put her in the centre of the most explosive debate in India this year.Soon after, many decorated authors and filmmakers returned their awards. The topic of intolerance was discussed not just on social media and on the streets but also in Parliament.

Greenpeace Pillai

It requires nerve to take on the might of the state but that is what Green peace activist Priya Pillai showed in January this year. She had been running a campaign against the auctioning of a coal block in Mahan, MP, for the devastation it could cause to 1,184 ha of forest area. On her way to London to address an Indo-British All-Party Parliamentary Group on her work with Mahan's communities, she was offloaded at Delhi airport.She went on to make the presentation over Skype, and demanded answers from the ministry of home affairs on the travel restrictions. The order was overturned in March by the Delhi HC. About a week later, it was declared that the auction would not happen in Mahan -it is now under the inviolate category.

Pothole artist

He planted a replica of a life-sized crocodile and turned the 12ft pothole around it into a pond, and got authorities to start fixing bad road in Bengaluru. Artist Baadal Nanjundaswamy, 36, drew attention to the IT city's crumbling infrastructure by creating the work of art on the busy Sulthanpalya Main Road in north Bengaluru in June. The pothole got fixed as the global media picked up the arresting visuals. Over the next few months, he drew cobwebs and demon faces to get potholes fixed as well as floated boats down busy Church Street to make his point.

BIG B: Right train of thought

Commuters in Mumbai were in for a surprise in November as actor Amitabh Bachchan rode the local train and sang with musician Saurabh Nimbkar, who raises money for cancer patients. The 73-year-old star accompanied Nimbkar on the train from Victoria Terminus to Bhandup. Big B sang `Rang Barse' for commuters and later featured Nimbkar on his show `Aaj Ki Raat Zindagi'. "I felt I wanted to sit by him and travel the distance he does, do what he does, in a show of support and spirit for his incredible thinking," Bachchan wrote on his blog.

Faith fight

Till late November, few had heard of this plucky journalist. Then V P Rajeena wrote a Facebook post on how as a child her classmates were molested by teachers in a madrassa in Kozhikode. It went viral, drawing the ire of those who saw it as a betrayal of her faith, and many responses were sexist and violent. That in a small town, Rajeena stood up for herself and her refusal to retract her post or apologize won her many admirers. Facebook shut down her account after complaints but Rajeena was unshaken: "I am not even a bit scared. I have truth and Allah on my side," she said.

Homemaker to activist

My daughter was Jyoti Singh and I am not ashamed to name her... Whoever has suffered should not hide their name. It is the offenders who should be ashamed and hide their name," Asha Devi, mother of Nirbhaya, declared in Delhi. Till the horrific death of her daughter three years ago, Asha Devi was an anonymous homemaker, a mother who encouraged her child to follow her dreams as she managed the household on her husband's modest income. Post December 16, 2012, she was pushed into the limelight, her husband was happy to let her do the talking. You may or may not agree with her demand to have the criminals sent to the gallows, but she has shown remark able courage in her fight for justice. Breaking period taboos

It was a thoughtless remark on period taboos from a temple official at the Sabarimala shrine that kicked off this mutinous social media campaign. To make sure that women didn't enter the temple of the bachelor deity, he said, a scanner could be invented to spot women who are menstruating. Soon enough indignant women, and men, joined the campaign holding up sanitary napkins, tampons, and placards coloured blood red with the retort `Happy to Bleed'. Started by student Nikita Azad, the campaign encouraged unabashed public conversations on a subject that even today is mentioned in hushed tones.

Can and able

In June, N L Beno Zephine, 25, was inducted into the Indian Foreign Service, the first 100% visually-challenged person to gain entry into the 69-year-old service. What Beno was looking forward to most was the chance to speak her mind. "I like talking a lot and was active through school and college in debates and extempore competitions," said Beno. A month later, 31-year-old Ira Singhal became the first physically-challenged woman to top in the general category . She had cleared the test in 2010 but hadn't got a posting because of a spine-related disorder.

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